Volume 2, 1: The Busy Patient Part 1—The Missing Classmate

Translator: Raylight (proofread by EvlNabiki & Trespasserby; C/E edited by lucathia)

Huff…Puff…

He kept running, panting until he was out of breath. However, he was ultimately unable to shake off the thing that was hot on his heels.

He was completely in the dark over how he had managed to attract the attention of such a thing, since all that he’d done was to head home from school like usual. The only difference would be that today, he was not with his classmate.

His classmate had said that he was visiting someone in the hospital, so his father had picked him up earlier.

On such a rare occasion in which he was left behind on his own, he could only head home by himself. However, it was too boring, so he had simply decided to take a shortcut.

This shortcut merely cut through an alley, saving him the trouble of walking around a huge bend. Moreover, the alley couldn’t be considered isolated, for when he walked through, he could still hear the sounds of chatter coming from other people’s homes. In the past, he’d walked along this path with his classmate several times, but his classmate disliked walking through this area a lot. Therefore, they rarely took the shortcut.

The moment he stepped into the alley this time, a strange feeling arose inside of him. However, a quick glance to the right and left proved that there was nothing unusual. The sky was still bright, and the alleyway was not dark. There simply didn’t seem like there was anything wrong…

After a moment’s hesitation, he walked further in.

In the beginning, he could still idly think about whether he should ask his mom if he could go over to his classmate’s home tomorrow. However, upon walking for several minutes blankly, he finally realized that something was wrong.

… Why haven’t I reached the end yet?

He raised his head uneasily. In doing so, he could see that the exit of the alley wasn’t too far off, so he quickened his footsteps.

The brightly-lit exit was obviously only a mere ten meters away, yet no matter how much he walked, he could not reach it. Panicking, he couldn’t help but start to run. Usually, it would take at most ten seconds or so to cover this stretch of road that was about ten meters long. However, he ran for at least three minutes, yet the distance between him and the exit remained unchanged, still ten meters away. It was practically like he had been running in place.

He became frantic, unsure why things had become like this. His eyes were fixed on the exit of the alley, as his legs moved non-stop. The more he ran, the more he quickened his pace, the more he panicked. Finally, he couldn’t help but choke down his sobs as he broke into tears.

After running and sobbing like this for a while, he was so out of breath that he could run no longer, no matter how afraid he was. He had no choice but to stop in his tracks. He looked around in confusion, hoping that he would be able to see what was wrong, but at the same time, he was scared he would actually see something…

However, he did not see anything, nor did he hear a single sound… Wait! Why isn’t there any sound?!

What happened to the usual sounds of chatter?

At this point, he finally understood the reason for the strange feeling he had when he stepped in.

It was too quiet.

His tears flowed continuously, as he stood rooted to the spot, lost as to what to do next. He was scared out of his wits. It took a long time before he wiped away his tears and then glanced before and behind him. Though the exit ahead was much closer, he was unable to reach it no matter how much he ran, so he decided to take the way back.

It was then that he saw that thing.

That thing was standing at the entrance and broke into a grin the moment it noticed him. Then, it started chasing him ferociously, with the vigor of a hunter that had spotted its prey.